The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1887-03-29
THE DISASTER AT RosLiNDALE.
Additional Testimony Before the
Railroad commIssioners-An In
dlgnant Witness.

BosToN, March 2S.-The investigation in,
TO the causes of the Roslindale accident was
continued this morning by the Railroad
Commissioners The hearing was opened al
IL o'clock, and Mr.. Geo. L. Vose, who was
the last witness on Saturday. was recalled
As he stepped to the rail in front of the Com
missioners' desk he said; II want first to
say word to these reporters. What | OBJ
ject to is to being grossly misrepresentedr
That is asking too much" said Chairman
Crocker, smiling.
THAT would be unwarrantable." added
Mr.. Putnam.
,,,,, ,",,Very I. = well thu theD," returned Mr.. vose, 81
We have an official shorthand reporter
here, put In Commissioner Kinsley.
e"Oh, yes, was Mr.. Vose's parting shot
HE VIII have it all right, but the public
don't see his report-they see the others.S
A. d9ese a statements by witness, in view of
he did not read the trashy" contents Of the
daily papers, brought smile to the faces of
many present.
Continuing his testimony in response to
MI. futnam, Mr.. Vose said that the break
~ ny oI tne hangers was consistent with the
theory tnat they broke under the weight of
the engine, or that they were broken by the
Snoek OF a later car in the train on the an
gle block from which they were hung the
cars having been derailed, and having torn
up the floor system. When pressed to say,
however, that the floor system could not be
held up il the hangers had broken under the
engine, witness would not say so, and said
ne could not conceive OF yielding of the
palls uhuer the engine that wSmld require
subsequent blows TO complete the break.
IN response to question by Mr.. Crocker.
MI: futnam here said that the point he was
trying to bring out was that the breaking of
ll Ine hangers was result, and not cause. of
the accident. Not that the railroad wished
70 establish any particular theory. but sim
Ply 70 ascertain facts; 1t did not seem to him
tnat II tne hangers had broken under the
engine, the floor system would have gone
down all at once and the first cars wonId
nave gone down instead of the fourth: he
thought from the testimony presented that
the broken rail caused derailment and
plllng up of trucks and sleepers at the end
of the bridge. This caused the check TO the
second car that telescoped the third car into
1t, and this shock broke the hangers and
caused the final collapse of the floor system.
Mr.. Henry Manley of West Roxbury, civil
tsnglneeT and superintendent of highway
bridges for the city of Boston, next testified.
he had examined the bridge since the acci-
dent He saw the block in which were the
broken hangers and concluded that they
were the cause Of the accident; his conclu-
sion was that the. hangers broke under the
W. OhSAit anu tldt Lilt HOOI SNS-
TEN was held up for a brief time by the
supporting post under the corner block.
witness then examined the hangers, and
SAID large proportion of the breaks were
old qpes. He thought the blacksmith work
on the hangers very faulty, and the hangers
were WEI improperly placed where they could
not be examined.
TO Mr.. Kinsley, witness said he should
nave considered the construction of the
Dridge as pad ten years ago, although it was
more common then than now. The progress
of simplicity
10 Mr. Putnam, witness said he had criti-
clsed the bridge because of the want of con-
tlnulty In the top chord of the Hewins truss
ana the consequent possibility of knocking
the truss 10 pieces In case of derailment.
Mr.. Putnam then propounded series of
questions, with a view to confirming his the
ory that the broken hangers were an effect
ana. not the cause of the accident, but wit
ness held to his own theory, that the floor
system held long enough to carry the cars to
Mr.. Vose was then recalled to testify in
regard to whether the bridge specifications
were rightly drawn or not, and said that
they were so drawn that you might get
bridge out Of them, or you might not
Az this point the hearing was adjourned
until Friday, at 1890 a. M, for the purpose
Oh allowing the commissioners to look over
the testimony already given. At that time
II Is understood that the testimony of
Messrs. Philbrick and Doane, civil engineers.
VIII be offered, and an effort made to close
tne investigation Saturday, at the latest.